FASHION SILHOUETTES AND ITS TYPES (part-1)

Silhouettes basically refer to the outer shape of a garment or in other words the outer line and look.Different types of Silhouettes can help in emphasizing and altering the natural body shape of a women in different ways. Always remember that a female silhouette is defined by the woman wearing the garment.One has to think about how they want the female body to be changed or altered by the clothing and silhouette created.for example- a high waist full skirt creates the illusion of a slimmer waist and larger hips.

In fashion design silhouettes play a major role and before coming down to the very details of the collection the designer has to make sure to decide first how he/she wants the silhouette to look like and all that not just depends on the body shape of the model who is wearing it but also on the theme and the storyline of the collection because each silhouette gives us a different sort of a look and feel.

Types of female silhouettes

1. A-line silhouette

A-line silhouettes mainly refers to the silhouettes that are found in skirts,coats and dresses and are narrow at the shoulder for dresses and coats with a fitted feminine curve near the waist and narrow at the waist for skirts and then flares out smoothly outwards towards the hem representing the capital letter A.

The term A-line was first coined by Christian Dior in 1955.During world War 2 in France women were forced to give up silk and other pricey materials and adopt simpler garments ,but as the war ended February 12,1947 saw Christian Dior restore a beautiful,harmonious idea of femininity to women who had been ravaged by the poor standards of living and he came up with the silhouette that changed the course of fashion history what came to be known as the ” New Look”.This new trend enjoyed popularity around the globe and gave a new freedom to the women post war in the 1940s and early 1950s. However,after some time he realised that a change was needed in the type of Silhouettes he was creating away from the nibbed-in waists and hour glass Silhouettes of the new look and so Christian Dior labeled his collections of 1954 and 1955 after the names of the letters H,Y and A because the shape of these letters would come across in our minds as we look at his collections.

2. Trapeze silhouette

Trapeze silhouette features dresses that have a fitted shoulder line and tops that are fitted near the bust and flares out right from there towards the hemline like an A-line silhouette but with a much wider hem giving a more boxy look. Trapeze dresses usually end above the knees.Trapeze tops can be either available in the form of a cut-sleeves tank top or have cape sleeves.Also 3/4 and long sleeves with either a flares like bell sleeves or a flared fabric that billows before fitting at the elbow looks great with a trapeze silhouette top.

Trapeze silhouette look quite similar to the above discussed A-line.The reason being that after the death of the Great fashion designer Christian Dior his label was handled by the designer Yves Saint laurent and in conjuction with Dior’s A-line collections inspired by the idea Yves saint Laurent introduced the trapeze line in the spring of 1958.

3.bell shaped or ball gown silhouette

Bell shaped or ball gown silhouettes are those that are fitted at the bodice(till the waistline)and flare out to the hem like a big bell.These can come either in the form of a bell shaped dress or as a full length ball gown popularly worn by women in Christian culture on their special day.These ball gowns flare beautifully till the floor and this type of look in the gown usually comes when layers of a fine fabric or frills of crinoline fabric are placed under the gown. These are also often paired with a beautiful elongated cape of the same structure.

4. Trumpet silhouette

Trumpet silhouette as seen in the images above comes in varied forms from dress to sleeves and is named so because it definitely resembles the shape of a trumpet and just like a trumpet this silhouette hugs the body and has a straight bodice down the waistline and the hips and starts flaring out near the mid-thighs resembling the flared out part of the trumpet from where the sound comes out. It is the most popular silhouette for sleek wedding gowns that remains clinged to the body and the flare also doesn’t widen much but remains restricted close to the legs of the woman wearing it.

5. Mermaid silhouette

Trumpet and mermaid silhouettes are almost similar to each other the only difference between them is the kind of fit they both have and the flare.Trumpet silhouettes usually starts flaring out near the mid-thighs whereas the mermaid silhouette dresses starts flaring out at or below the knees thereby giving the appearance of a mermaid tail at the bottom and justifies the name mermaid silhouette.

This is just the part 1 of types of Silhouettes there are many more types that exists so stick to the next few blogs to know more…

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